Hasta La Gadget!

After a weeks of speculation, leaks, confirmation and a sneak peek from my colleagues here at Engadget, Google finally told the story of the Nexus One. The Nexus One is the latest and greatest Android device, with a bit of a twist. The Nexus One is available without contract and unlocked directly from Google for $530, as well as subsidized from T-Mobile on a two-year contract for $179. Even with T-Mobile service, the device is only available from Google. Interesting, but hardly the groundbreaking business model that was expected as soon as the words “Google phone” began to make the rounds.

As nice as the Nexus One is — and in my opinion it’s the nicest Android device on the market — it makes me wonder what Google’s up to with Android and why it’s even in the mobile OS business, let alone selling phones directly to consumers. I’d ask the same about Chrome and Chrome OS as well. Android is particularly puzzling, however: Google licenses it for free and it’s turned up on some rather interesting devices, but none of those devices have helped build out an ecosystem. Many of them are proprietary and Android is rapidly becoming fragmented — the Archos5 Internet Tablet, for example, can’t make official use of the Android marketplace. But nothing is as strange as Google getting into the hardware business directly and selling devices, albeit unlocked and unsubsidized ones, directly to consumers.

Continue reading Entelligence: ‘Don’t be evil’ isn’t the basis for a relationship

Entelligence: ‘Don’t be evil’ isn’t the basis for a relationship originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last month, Google unveiled Chrome OS, a lightweight browser-based operating system for netbooks. But the company didn’t offer any details on what kind of device could run the OS.

Now specs for a netbook with Chrome OS have leaked and it looks pretty.

The Google netbook will reportedly have a 10.1-inch high definition multi-touch display, a 64 GB solid state drive, 2 GB RAM and connectivity features such as Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and Ethernet port, says British publication IBTimes.

The netbook is also likely to have an Nvidia’s Tegra system-on-a-chip that can boost audio and video capabilities of the device significantly and be powered by an ARM CPU. It’s not clear whether these are just minimum requirements for a Chrome OS netbook or if all Chrome OS netbooks will adhere exactly to it.

Google announced the creation of Chrome OS at an event on the company’s Mountain View, California-campus in November. The Linux-based Chrome OS promises blazing fast boot times, at around seven seconds.

Chrome OS will only be available on specific hardware from companies Google has partnered with. Last month, Google said it is talking to hardware manufacturers to create the netbook in line with its specifications and design.The company has also said it plans to have Chrome OS ready for the holiday season of 2010.

Netbooks running the OS could be available for less than $300, say reports, thanks to either subsidies from Google or from telecom carriers such as AT&T that are likely to offer it with a two-year data contract.

See Also:

• Five Things Google’s Chrome OS Will Do for Your Netbook
• Google Chrome OS: Ditch Your Hard Drives, the Future Is the Web …
• Why Google Should Cool It With Chrome OS
• Google to Demonstrate Chrome OS in Thursday Event

Photo illustration: Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com; Original photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Google’s already said you’ll need to buy a Chrome OS machine if you want it officially, but if TechCrunch’s sources are right, they could be launching Google-branded hardware for the platform, much like they’re doing with the Nexus One.

Sure, you may’ve already downloaded an early Chrome OS build on your current machine, but unless you want it to be your sole platform, and running just the way Google intended, then you’ll need to buy the official hardware. Acer’s stated its intent to be first with a product release, presumably at the tail-end of next year, but ASUS, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba are also involved in the Chrome OS project too.

A “request for proposal” has already been issued to potential suppliers, such as those mentioned above, supposedly listing the specifications Google would like to see in that first netbook. Google is believed to be working with just the one manufacturer, to build the ideal netbook. TechCrunch’s sources are claiming they’ll be 3G-embedded, and quite possibly subsidized by a carrier.

Michael Arrington, editorializing at this point, goes on to say that:

“I’d be willing to bet one of our writers’ right hands that it’s ARM [as opposed to an Intel Atom processor]. And I’d even go out on a limb and suggest that they may very well be targeting Nvidia’s Tegra line.”

Adobe, Freescale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are the other parties already working with on the Google Chrome OS project, so presumably the netbook will contain some components from them as well.

So, which company do we think Google will choose in this all-important talent show? Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo or Toshiba, or even someone else? ASUS obviously has strong heritage with netbooks, thanks to inventing the market for it back in 2007, but Acer launched the first Android-powered netbook. HP, Lenovo and Toshiba have all produced some solid netbooks in their time, but haven’t quite measured up to Acer and ASUS’ success just yet. [TechCrunch]

Chromium OS gets unofficial 64-bit port originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we’ve known for a while that Google was throwing considerable weight behind HTML 5, and that one of the purposes of the markup language is to do away with plug-ins for Internet apps, so it makes sense that eventually Gears would go the way of the Dodo. But so soon? Linus Upson, the man in charge of both the Chrome browser and Chrome OS engineering teams, has announced that the company is done developing the software. “We are not driving forward in any meaningful way [on Gears],” the man said in an interview with PC Magazine. “We are continuing to maintain it, so that applications will continue to work; we don’t want to break anything out there.” If you listen to this guy, it sounds like this was the plan, all along: “When we started the Gears project, three years ago… we did it because we couldn’t get the browser vendors interested in building offline applications.” He then details the mind trick: Google ships Gears, and suddenly browser vendors are “very interested in adding capabilities to build offline applications,” paving the way for the capabilities in the next version of HTML. Clever, Google. In the same interview, Upson stated the company’s plans to move all its apps to standards-based HTML 5 APIs. Now that it’s convinced the world that it wants — nay, needs — rich Internet applications, we hope that the company will promise to use its powers of persuasion for good, and not for evil.

Google halts development of Gears, makes room for HTML 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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